There is a need for conceptual models of human behavior which include aging. In previous work (#1 R01 AG00711) we expanded the Campbell, Converse and Rogers (1976) model in an effort to accomodate data on older persons. Their model accounted the behavior of persons under the age of 55, but not those older. With people 60 and over, we found: (1) feeling of equity to be more important than aspiration level; (2) status deprivation; (3) sense of personal competence to be more important than age in accounting for satisfaction with several aspects of life (income, housing, health) and with life as a whole; and (4) positive response bias to be associated with realistic deprivation, and defensive in nature. We propose to test the expanded model (1) using a large age range in order to assess more adequately the role of age; (2) with more substantial measures of objective reality, status deprivation, sense of personal competence, and general well-being; and (3) with a broader range of life domains. Hypothesis are: (1) Addition of an equity consideration improves the power of the model throughout adult life. (2) Level of aspiration and considerations of equity play different roles as age advances: in early and middle adulthood, the former is more potent; in later years, the latter. (3) Throughout adult years, objective conditions of life are not related to attitudes about those conditions in monotonic fashion: attitudes are positive both when conditions are good and when they are very bad. (4) The positive response bias is defensive, as indicated by negative relationship with overall well-being. (5) Objective reality is related in monotonic fashion to overall well-being. (6) Attitudes toward specific conditions of life and toward life in general are associated more closely with deprived status and sense of personal competence than with age, throughout adulthood.